Introduction
Sexual assault is a series of complicated and challenging crimes that have catastrophic consequences for victims. Whether a toddler is sexually assaulted by a member of the family or an adolescent is pushed into intercourse by an older male, sexual violence affects every aspect of a victim’s existence. A university student who has been drugged and abused at an event and an adult who strangers or her ex-fiancĂ© has violated suffer severe consequences. Apart from psychological effects, there are health implications to contemplate, including physical trauma, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as HIV, and unintended pregnancy. This research paper aims to explain why victims of sexual abuse should be exempted from Texas abortion restrictions.
Texas Abortion Laws Not Protecting Sexual Assault Victims
As of September 2021, abortion was termed illegal under all circumstances in Texas, especially after detecting a fetal heartbeat. Previously, abortions could be performed up to twenty weeks after conception. Anti-abortion campaigns have taken place at the municipal level in conjunction with bills approved by the Texas Legislature, with thirty Texas localities outlawing abortion. Abortions after six weeks are strictly permitted in cases of a medical emergency (Cohen et al. 1473). The new Texas abortion legislation requires a physician to check for an embryonic heartbeat before performing an abortion and forbids abortion if cardiac activity has been detected. An exception is made whenever abortion is necessary due to a health emergency. Civil lawsuits undertaken by private individuals will be used to enforce these and similar sections of the legislation (Cohen et al. 1474). The law forbids abortions before most females are even aware that they are expectant, and it would be difficult to overturn in court.
The legislation prohibits abortions when cardiac activity in the fetus is identified, usually during week six of conception. It is pretty premature an expectancy at that stage, and several women are unaware they are expecting. According to medical standards, when an expectant female misses her menstruation, the woman is considered four weeks pregnant. A female will have approximately two weeks in the law to evaluate her situation, verify the conception with a test, determine how to handle the pregnancy, and undergo an abortion (Ramsey). Some females may not have accurate menstrual records, encounter non-uniform periods, or do not know when their previous cycle commenced. The laws offer an undue burden to sexual abuse victims that disguising denies them the option of abortion for the unintended pregnancy.
Harm Texas Abortion Law Causes to Sexual Assault Victims
Texas’ abortion legislation is unpopular throughout the electoral spectrum and needs to be scrapped out to satisfy the majority of people’s desires. Contrary to popular belief, the regulation offers no exemptions for assault or incest survivors. The temporal range is particularly problematic for people who have been abused on several occasions. Victims of assault frequently become insensitive to what is occurring to their bodies to deal with the hurt of the abuse. According to a social professional who deals with sexual abuse victims, the inability to end a pregnancy will make a recovery from an offense further strenuous (Lopez). Coercing a female to bear a pregnancy to maturity may be economically, mentally, and emotionally harming (Brice-Saddler). After their feeling of security and authority has already been breached, this weight further erodes victims’ autonomy.
Pregnancy should be the outcome of an adult’s free decision, not sexual abuse against a young girl. Lawmakers in Texas fail to acknowledge that forced pregnancy is a violation of women’s rights. The abortion law enjoys little support from the public and fails to address the democratic process (Martin). Policymakers claim that abortion is not illegal in Texas; however, the law is structured to make abortion illegal. When Senate Bill 8 was presented, abortion providers characterized it as a complete restriction on abortions since it encompasses abortions whenever heart activity in the fetus can be identified. However, this is much sooner than many women realize they are expectant (Cohen 91). However, the categorization is erroneous since the legally recognized restriction on abortions dependent on heart activity specifically prohibits most abortions.
Sexual Assault Victims are Denied the Option of Abortion
The cases of sexually assaulted victims being denied the option of abortion in Texas is at an all-time high. The Dallas Area Rape Crisis Agency’s emergency helpline is available seven days a week throughout the day. Qualified volunteers handle around two thousand calls every year, primarily involving sexual abuse victims, and occasionally assist women who want to consult physicians about ending their conceptions (Martin). Unfortunately, The Dallas organization and many sexual violence emergency facilities throughout the state were compelled to constrain the assistance they offered to assault survivors of incest when the state’s most stringent abortion prohibition went into action in Texas (Rebouche 5). According to the World Health Organization and United Nations, the law potentially affected thousands of victims who should get direct exposure to secure and lawful abortions.
When a female falls pregnant without seeking or desiring it, and abortion is refused, hampered, prolonged, or complicated, it is referred to as forced pregnancy. Forced pregnancy is a grave breach of reproductive and sexual independence that can result in profound bodily and mental damage and long-term individual, cultural, and financial impacts. A few of these births result from an absence of sexual knowledge, contraceptive availability, or a mishap, but the majority are the result of sexual assault, which is typically committed by families or friends, particularly among teenage girls (“Forced Pregnancy”). The International Criminal Court considers forced pregnancy to be a war offense. International law condemns assault on women and commits to pursuing measures to prohibit, prosecute, and eliminate such conduct using all appropriate methods and without procrastination.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the paper evaluates the impact the Texas abortion law has on the vulnerable group of sexual assault victims. The significance of the argument is that survivors of rape will not be forced to keep the pregnancy, which has physical and psychological effects on their existence. Some women opt to commit suicide due to the undue burden of raising an unintended child. The law is unconstitutional since it violates women’s rights as it denies sexual abuse victims the to terminate unwanted pregnancies lawfully. Following through with this argument will enable sexual assault victims to get the option to choose whether they intend to keep the pregnancy or not.
References
Cohen, Glenn, I., Adashi, Eli, Y., & Gostin, Lawrence, O. “The Supreme Court, The Texas Abortion Law (SB8), And the Beginning of The End of Roe V Wade?”JAMA, vol. 326, no. 15, 2021, pp. 1473-1476.
Brice-Saddler, Michael. “An 11-Year-Old Pleaded for an Abortion After She Was Raped. She Was Forced to Give Birth.”The Washington Post, 2019.
Cohen, Glenn, I. “Are All Abortions Equal? Should There Be Exceptions to The Criminalization of Abortion for Rape and Incest?”Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, vol. 43, no. 1, 2015, pp. 87-104.
“Forced Pregnancy.”Equality now.
Lopez, Ashley. “Texas Abortion Law Harms Survivors of Rape and Incest, Activists Say.”KNH, 2021.
Martin, Anna, K. “Making Pro-abortion Laws Pro-choice for Female Rape Victims.” 33 Wis. J. L. Gender & Soc’y, 2018.
Ramsey, Ross. “Analysis: Texas’ New Standard Is Abortions for Those Who Can Afford to Leave Texas.”The Texas Tribune, 2022.
Rebouche, Rachel. “Abortion Opportunism.”Journal of Law and the Bioscience, vol. 7, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1-10.